Mythology

Rating:
Summary: "Mythology"- A Misleading Title
Review: Overall, "Mythology" is a decent introduction to Greco-Roman mythology, and when I read it in the third grade or so I loved it and it gave me a good base of knowledge. However, this year I had to study it in English class and just about memorize it, and my opinions about it have changed. This book is meant to be read as a textbook, looking things up when one feels it neccesary. That is how I originally read it. By no means should this dry, utilitarian tome be read cover-to-cover. Hamilton's writing style is concise and she gets her point across, but one cannot read more than one story at a time without nearly falling asleep. Reading Hamilton is a far cry from reading Homer or Sophocles. The most positive aspect of the book is its sheer comprehensiveness- Hamilton covers the gods and demigods thoroughly, as well as a large number of mythical tales. If you manage to force yourself through the whole of this book, you will gather from it quite a lot of information.
The title might lead you to believe that this book is a comprehensive look at mythology in general, but don't be fooled. In Hamilton's eyes, no culture or mythology is worth a second thought except that of the Greeks and Romans. She accuses all pre-greek religions of glorifying pain and sacrafice, which is not true at all. She says of the religions of the ancient world, "Mankind's chief hope of escaping the wrath of whatever divinities were then abroad lay in some magical rite, senseless but powerful, or in some offering made at the cost of pain and grief." She belittles the lore of Egypt and Mesopotamia, calling the Egyptian goddess with the head of a cat "a rigid figure...suggesting inflexible, inhuman cruelty." It was the goddess of music! She describes the Greeks themselves, in pre-hellenistic times, as living "a savage life, ugly and brutal." She says of Greek mythology, "what the myths show is how high they [the greeks] had risen above the ancient filth...". Disgusting. How dare she call the mythology of the Egyptians and the Assyrians "filth"? She does mention Norse mythology in her book, but gives so tiny a glimpse of it that she ought not to have included it at all. She doesn't bother to go into any detail at all about the Norse gods, and ignores almost the entire Volsung saga, telling only the stories of Signy and Sigurd. She tells us nothing of Freja's disturbing obtainment of Brisingamen, the dwarf-wrought necklace, or of the ring of Andvari that brought such misfortune upon its wearers. She does cover the Creation and Ragnarok, though not in much detail.
This book should have been entitled "Greco-Roman Mythology" or "The Mythology of the Greeks and Romans".

Rating:
Summary: pretty good
Review: A fairly good introduction to mythology. The sources aren't always followed as closely as the author claims, and to contradict the author, OVID RULES!

Rating:
Summary: awesome
Review: A great book! It really got me fascinated with Greek and Roman mythology:

Rating:
Summary: Quick. Concise. Informative
Review: After reading this novel for my Enlgish class, I would like to share my thoughts. For people that are looking for a book to catch them up on Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology, in a quick period of time, this is your book. It gets to the point and just re-tells what the previous writers have. But if you want to take your time and read mythology with passion and time, choose another book. Hamilton just tells it as it is, although if some stories are vivd, it would probably be thanks to Ovid.

Rating:
Summary: Review: Dedicated to Anti-Statists and Bad Poets
Review: All the important Greek and Roman mythology is included in this work, with a few "Norse tales" tacked onto the end for flavoring, one supposes. The Norse myths comprise the book's final "Part Seven", which runs only from page 443, to the end at page 462. These myths of the Northern European Peoples appear after "Part Six", which bears the rubric "The Less Important Myths".

Only indirectly, and briefly does the author mention such German myths as The Nibelungenleid and Parzival, and then she merely dismisses them thus: "Sigurd is the most famous of Norse heroes; his story is largely that of the hero of the Nibelungenleid, Siegfried... I have not gone into it, however."

There are no Celtic myths. The legend of Arthur's round table at Camelot is omitted, and so are the tales of Roland and the Paladins of Charlemagne. The Holy Grail is nowhere to be found, and there is not a single word about Uncle Remus.

All that having been said, one must wonder if the title "Mythology" isn't overstating, just a bit. It certainly leads to disappointment if a reader makes his decision based on the title alone. Perhaps "Classical Mythology" would better suit the text.

All of the above doesn't make this a bad book. Actually, the author has turned in a workman-like performance, and all the Greek and Roman foundation tales of Western Civilization are included.

I have found the dust jacket blurbs, on my 1942-copyright, used edition, to be interesting reading... this book is a good place to get acquainted with classical mythology.

Rating:
Summary: Informative but dull
Review: Although Hamilton's compilation is the most concise yet comprehensive study I have yet encountered, it lacks the personability and excitement of Greek mythology.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent collection of mythological stories.
Review: Although it's difficult to give an accurate review of such a large book with so many different stories, overall Edith Hamilton's Mythology deserves five stars. For a discussion on the myths within this book, please skip down to the capitalized section.

The effort put into this book is tremendous. It is quite obvious by her writing the Ms. Hamilton has dedicated plenty of time to this work. Although not all works which have been worked on for so long are necessarily successul, this one is.

The book mainly covers Greek and Roman mythology, with a small section of Norse mythology at the end. As there are at least two different names for each god and goddess due to the difference between the Greek and Roman myths, the stories can get a bit confusing. Yet Ms. Hamilton does her best to aid us in understanding. The work begins with an introduction to mythology section which describes certain gods and goddesses, as well as the history of mythology. As stated, these parts may be confusing since there are usually a Roman and Greek name for each important figure.

THE STORIES THEMSELVES. The myths themselves are told excellently by Hamilton. She offers views from many different sources, often choosing the best source for each story (or each particular part of a story). As myths differ from writer to writer, you may find that the version of one myth is different from the version Hamilton tells. This is expected. However, Ms. Hamilton does an excellent job telling the myths as best she can, especially considering the amount of myths she tells in the book.

The only complaint I have of this book is the fact that some myths that I consider important only receive a few pages in the book, while less important myths (in my opinion) have several pages dedicated to them. Another example of this is the presence of such myths that I thought were important in the 'less important myths' section.

Overall, this is a good overview of mythology and is definitely recommended. If you are planning a trip to Greece anytime, I suggest picking this up as it will help explain the significance of many places within Greece that you may end up visiting.

Rating:
Summary: Analytic Mythological Research
Review: Although the book is a great source for numerous popular mythological stories it has some serious drawbacks. The book lacks personality as Hamilton gives a polite discourse upon the historical origins of the story being told. Also the writting is fairly simple and, at times, very impersonal as the writter often breaks up the flow of the story to add personal comentary on the thoughts of charachers or even to debate the historical origins and evaluate which popular version of the tale is better.

Rating:
Summary: use it as a resource
Review: As a long-time student of mythology, I was generally disappointed with this book. It hardly appreciates the richness of Greek mythology; Hamilton rather plods through the stories in Greek mythology (the book ought to be called "Greek and Roman Mythology," as it is mostly stories from ancient Greek culture, and its imitators, the Romans), except for that last chapter on Norse mythology. The only useful parts are the introductory chapters, which provide a nice overview of the themes of Greco-Roman mythology, how it came about, brief bios of major writers, etc, and the genealogical tables at the back of the book. For a better introduction to mythology, and a book that encompasses more than Greco-Roman mythology, read Michael Macrone's "Brush Up Your Mythology."

Rating:
Summary: More about Ms. Hamilton's world than the Greeks' world
Review: As a very quick and superficial introduction, this book may have some benefit, in the same way that the Cliff Notes can be useful, but if you want to get the true flavor of the myths and of the Greek universe, you best go elsewhere. Edith Hamilton reached so widely, while being so hemmed in by the strictures of her day, that she paints the stories only in the broadest of brush strokes, and bowdlerizes them in the process, much as might be expected of a proper British lady scholar writing in the days of top hats and steam locomotives.

We may well be doing a disservice to our students by exposing them to this work, bland and devoid of the passion, immediacy and rawness that still resonate from the surviving Greek and Roman texts. If we want to imbue the present generation with love of knowledge, I would recommend instead Robert Fagles' wonderful translations of Homer and Sophocles, Nick Rudall's translation of Euripides' "Trojan Women", or Calimach's vivid rendition of the male love myths in "Lovers' Legends". But not Dame Edith.